Grace Omaboe charged

THE Proprietress of Peace and Love Orphanage, Madam Grace Omaboe, popularly known as Maame Dokono, was yesterday put before the Accra Circuit Court charged with four counts of operating a home without licence and exposing a child to harm.
Two of her caregivers, Mary Anaglate and another whose name was only given as Daavi and currently on the run, have also been charged.

Maame Dokono was alleged to have illegally operated a home between March 7, 2006 and January 2008 without licence.
She is also accused of exposing Joseph Kobi Omaboe, then 15 months old and now deceased, to harm which eventually led to his premature death.
She pleaded not guilty to the charges and was granted bail in the sum of GH¢30,000 with two sureties, while Mary was granted a GH¢10,000 bail with two sureties.
They are both expected to reappear on November 23, 2009.
The facts of the case are that a year after the establishment of the orphanage, Nana Yaa Agyeman, who was then the supervisor of the home, resigned and officially wrote a report to the Ghana National Commission on Children about the state of affairs at the orphanage.
However, no action was taken.
The proprietress of the home was accused of engaging the services of unqualified and inadequate number of persons to take care of the needs of about 60 children.
Also the children were underfed, they slept in dirty and smelly rooms, some of which were not well ventilated. They were also made to live in darkness because of the non-payment of electricity bills, which led to the older ones taking advantage of the darkness to abuse the younger ones.
On December 31, 2008, Maame Dokono travelled to Holland and left GH¢50 for the upkeep of the 60 inmates.
The situation got out of hand and the Department of Social Welfare received reports of the situation in the home.
It was then recommended that four of the children, including a two-year-old and a six-month-old, be evacuated.
After the evacuation, it emerged that the six-month-old child had been sodomised, while the other one had been defiled.
Further investigations revealed that Joseph Omaboe and Adom Omaboe had been put into hot water by Daavi and in the process Joseph sustained serious burns, as well as injuries, leading to his death on October 6, 2007.